Sunday, February 07, 2016

Stories from around the web

Dr. Gilles Baud-Berthier, Director of the Musee Albert Kahn said on the museum’s website, “These were not works of reportage or ethnography, nor an attempt to produce works of art. The aim was simply to record human beings in all their diversity, living humble lives worthy of respect. And from this respect would, Kahn hoped, arise the universal peace to which he aspired.”

here, they repair tricycles at the side of the street too.
as for women weaving and spinning: Luddites loved those days, but interviews with women who spent half their lives doing this tedious task might give you another opinion. LINKlink2pdf

(wonder if they asked how many of these folks sent their sons to the UK or US to work and send back money, like we do here in the Philippines).

of course, the happy view is probably more accurate in it's way than the post modern cynical view of Ireland as a wasteland full of drunken idiots.

the disease dujour... but actually historians noted the personality change after his accident.

not to be confused with his megalomania which might have been from neurosyphillis, mercury poisoning (used to cure syphillis) or just because he was a spoiled rotten kid who got his own way in everything.

Muslim consumers spend an estimated $230bn on clothing - more than the combined clothing markets of the UK, Germany and India [Yoray Liberman/Getty Images]

Good. Now if it would only become a fad so our daughters don't have to dress like sluts to be fashionable...

No, they don't dress like sluts here in the provinces of the Philippines: the local dress is Jeans (or long shorts) and a tee shirt. Skirts are for old ladies or InC types...the local Muslim women wear the same: pants and shirt, albeit with a veil.

Most of the kiosk owners outside our local grocery store are Muslim women, so I was amused when the clothing section of the grocery store had one of their mannekins wearing a veil (and they sell the long scarves, for veils or for the rest of us to use as a shawl in cool weather).

No, I don't have a problem with a veil. St Paul recommended Christian women wear them too but as the letter to Diogenes notes: early Christians didn't dress differently from their neighbors.

Head coverings make sense from a non religious standpoint however: They keep the head warm, protect it from the sun in hot weather, and when indoors, keep the dust out of the hair (and hair out of the food).

And traditionally, wearing a head covering was a signal that one was an honorable woman and married, so sort of a "hands off me" signal.

Heh. Wonder if this would work in colleges where feminists have their knots in a knicker about being pressured into casual sex.

Head coverings have gone out of fashion in the west, however.

Old order Amish and some Mennonite women still cover their hair to follow the scripture.

Muslim women wearing a scarf to honor God is a good thing, and having more of them in the workplace will do a lot to counteract the severe Islamophobia that I see in the US blogosphere.

Facial coverings, however, are against western culture, demean women, and can be used to hide criminal activity, so I agree they could be banned from businesses if this becomes a problem, in the same way we saw the "no shoes no shirt no service" signs go up in a lot of stores when the hippies started running around barefoot and half naked.

and no, banning face coverings would not be limited to Muslim women, but would include the wearing of similar face coverings, like the skimaks I used to wear in Minnesota when I walked to work when it was 20 below...